NEWS: 9 Month Stretch @ Tyneside Cinema

Albert Dupontel’s latest lampoons the French legal system with slapstick black humour

By Eugenie Johnson
on Friday, November 14th, 2014

Described by the Hollywood Reporter as being “like Amelie on steroids,” 9 Month Stretch is the latest black comedy from French director Albert Dupontel (The Villain), coming to the Tyneside Cinema from the 18th November. The story concerns Ariane Felder (Sandrine Kimberlain), an uptight and ambitious court judge who is also defiantly single who unwillingly gets dragged to a New Year’s Party. Six months down the line, Ariane is pregnant with no idea how it happened or who the father is. Suspecting that her leering colleague Godfrey (Philippe Uchan) is responsible, Ariane takes a lump out of his head with a golf club to test his DNA, as you do.

What follows is a series of gags involving Godfrey and a variety of heavy objects as Ariane tries to get to the bottom of her mystery pregnancy. 9 Month Stretch gets its laughs from cartoonishly depicting the pomposities of the French legal system and Dupontel’s typically unsophisticated approach to comedy. Purposefully designed to raise a laugh, 9 Month Stretch will be perfect for lovers of black comedy to wipe away the winter blues.